dita — archive

RE: [dita] DITA Issue Proposal: Styling Options for Conditional Text

From: Erik Hennum
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 13:39:00 -0000

 MHonArc v2.5.0b2 -->



























dita message






[Date Prev]
 | [Thread Prev]
 | [Thread Next]
 | [Date Next]

--

[Date Index]
 | [Thread Index]
 | [List Home]








Subject: RE: [dita] DITA Issue Proposal: Styling Options for Conditional Text




From: Erik Hennum <[email protected]>
To: "JoAnn Hackos" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 06:36:34 -0700







Hi, JoAnn and Paul:


We might want to include this issue in the existing item, 39 Policy-based style mechanism.


(By the way, JoAnn, I'm an interested party on that item.)


I'd suggest that our approach to style policies should consist of selectors and properties.  In essence, a policy file should be able to attach any style or layout property (including an exclude or hide property) to any content fragment.


The selectors should be CSS-like matches on inherited class, instance identifier, token value, or nesting of the above.  The goal should be to put policy decisions in the hands of the broad audience that wouldn't be successful with XSLT.  (Because XSLT is always available as a general fallback, style policies can provide a purely declarative set of selectors and properties rather than executable flow and expressions.)


To produce books from bookmaps, the set of properties will need properties like page break and so on.


A bit more on the thought:


http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/200409/msg00022.html


Paul's note below highlights the convergence of this approach with DITA conditional values, which also provide a system of selectors and properties.  In a perfect world, existing DITA values files would remain valid instances of the more general style policies format. A transform might be acceptable.



Thanks,



Erik Hennum

[email protected]




[email protected]>">"JoAnn Hackos" <[email protected]>









"JoAnn Hackos" <[email protected]> 
08/29/2005 07:55 AM







To 

"Paul Prescod" <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>



cc 





Subject 

RE: [dita] DITA Issue Proposal: Styling Options for Conditional Text








I fully support this proposal.
JoAnn 
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD 

President 

Comtech Services, Inc. 

710 Kipling Street, Suite 400 

Denver, CO 80215 

303-232-7586 

[email protected] 

http://www.comtech-serv.com 


From: Paul Prescod [mailto:[email protected]] 

Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 1:04 AM

To: [email protected]

Subject: [dita] DITA Issue Proposal: Styling Options for Conditional Text



We propose that the DITAVAL file be standardized for interchange among applications.

 

The DITAVAL file currently provides 16 colors for styling conditional elements. We propose that the styling options be extended for scalability, to support multiple output devices, and to incorporate current knowledge of human factors.

 

Feedback from our customers indicates that it is important to be able to signal conditions without relying on color. Non-color formatting is important in monochrome printouts and for color-blind users. 

 

We propose allowing users to assign the following formats to conditions: underline, double underline, italics, overline, and bold.

 

We propose allowing users to set background colors for conditional text. For the vast majority of users who work in black text on a white background, light highlight colors provide good contrast for legibility.

 

 Paul Prescod and Su-Laine Yeo

 Blast Radius XMetaL

 








Follow-Ups:

RE: [dita] DITA Issue Proposal: Styling Options for Conditional Text
From: Michael Priestley <[email protected]>



References:

RE: [dita] DITA Issue Proposal: Styling Options for Conditional Text
From: "JoAnn Hackos" <[email protected]>






[Date Prev]
 | [Thread Prev]
 | [Thread Next]
 | [Date Next]

--

[Date Index]
 | [Thread Index]
 | [List Home]